Immortal Bloodlines
by Steelfeathers
Summary: How do you cope when you find out that you're decended from a god?
1. Chapter 1

1The day I had always feared has finally come.

My boss offered me a job up in Alaska at one of the research stations. At first, I had been over joyed. It had been what I always wanted, that is, until I had a daughter.

I couldn't turn it down. It would mean the end of my career if I did. But I also couldn't take Ariana with me, because she had school and a life here. There was no way for her to finish her high school education in Alaska, and what was more, I would have to completely uproot her to make the move because there's no one but me to take care of her.

Well, almost.

There was one other person I could turn to. Ariana's father. The only problem is that he had no idea she even existed.

After many sleepless nights, I finally called him. He was more than a little surprised to here from me, and even more surprised when I told him he had a daughter.

But he did agree to take care of Ariana. Actually, 'agreed' isn't exactly the right word. He practically begged me to let him see his only daughter, so I caved. Ariana wouldn't be too happy about it though, since I had always told her that her father died in a car accident before she was born.

Ever since she was little, Ariana would ask where her papa was, and why he didn't come to see her like her friend's papa's did. I was... to ashamed to tell her the truth.

How could I explain to my little girl that her father wasn't really dead?

How could I tell my little girl that he loved her more than life itself?

How could I tell my little girl that she is different in ways she could never imagine?

How could I tell my little girl that she inherited her golden eyes from her father?

How could I tell Ariana that her father was Optimus Prime?


	2. Chapter 2

1My life sucks.

I'm scrawny, ugly, unpopular and nerdy with creepy yellow eyes that are nearly impossible to cover up. And to top it all off, my mother is a ditzy government worker who's never home when I need her and always bugging me when I don't.

And my dad, well, he doesn't exist anymore.

Anywho, my life was about to get a lot worse, starting with the first bad omen of the day; attendence.

"Fred?"

"Here!"

"Leigh-ann?"

"What?"

"I'll take that to mean that you're here." The teacher, a severe looking women in her forties, shot a glare at the girl.

"Esperanza?"

"Estoy aqui!"

"Ingles por favor..." The teacher sighed wearily.

"Ariana?"

The shaggy-haired girl, absorbed in her book, didn't hear her name being called.

"Ariana?" The teacher asked again, icing her a glare as well.

"Uh...what?" Ariana looked up, her glasses slipping down her nose. The teacher winced internally as those bright golden eyes focused on her, disgusted at the unnaturalness of their color.

"Are you here?"

Ariana shook her hand out of her long shirt sleeve and pushed her glasses back up on her face.

"Yep."

"Your mind should be here as well, Ariana, not in some fantasy world. Close the book."

Blushing violently amid the snickers erupting around the room, she slowly closed the thick hard-bound book.

"Hey look, the nerd actually shut her book for once." Leigh-Ann taunted, smacking loudly on her gum.

"I think she's going through withdrawal..." The go-go girl beside her chimed in, smiling predatorily.

Ariana lowered her head, wishing that she could simply sink through the floor and out of sight.

"That's enough!" The teacher called out, rapping a boy who was sleeping the front row over the head with her pointer.

"Maybe she's an alien, that's why her eyes are yellow..." Leigh-Ann whispered quietly.

"Or maybe she just has to pee..." They broke off, smothering their laughter. Neither saw the small tear run down her cheek.

It was only 6:25 too.

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The bus dropped her off at the end of her street, and when the doors squealed open, Ariana tumbled down the steps into the mud after being tripped by the Jock in the front row.

"Hey, see ya' tomorrow, loser!" He yelled gayly after her as the bus roared away. After a long while, she pulled herself up by the wooden post of the stop sign and clung to it like a drowning man would a life preserver, not trusting herself to breath without breaking out in tears.

She lifted her head and looked down the street, seeing that- once again- her mother's blue sedan was not in the driveway. Not that she had expected it to be. She was NEVER home when Ariana needed her.

She drew in a rattling breath, choking on it. I'll just be emotionless, she thought. No one can hurt my feelings if I don't have any...

Her throat constricted painfully.

Slowly, so slowly, she hoisted her muddy backpack and slung it over her shoulder, trudging down the street towards her 'home'.

A squat, non-descript little building, the house seemed sickening perky and cheerful to her, the yellow trimmed windows winking happily at her. But it wasn't home, and that made it seem all the more depressing.

Ariana slouched up the clean, concrete walkway towards the door, stepping over a small sheet of paper. She ignored it. It was another of those looney door-to-door cult members preaching about how the Autobot 'invasion' as they called it was the death to all humanity and shoving an avalanche of leaf-lets in every-ones faces. Nuerotic? Yes. Dangerous? Hell yes.

Though they put on a good front, the S.E.F or Society for Earth First was not apposed to using bribery, threats, and violence to gain support. They hated the Transformers and opposed their presence on Earth. Quite often they had come to their house, all cheery and smiling, offering a free gift for signing up. Her mom though had always politely turned them down, or had pretended to look at their brochures with interest, if only to keep their wrath off of them. The one smart thing her mom had done in Ariana's opinion.

Ariana pulled her house key out of her pocket and unlocked the door, stepping into the cool dark hallway. She liked it that way; free of other people and things to mock her.

Letting her backpack drop to the ground with a thud, she popped off her muddy shoes and went into the kitchen. There was a note on the table in her mom's handwriting. She snatched it up, catching sight of a few lines of 'something important came up...' 'Had to run' 'be back late' yada yada yada. She dumped into the garbage can unceremoniously. She's heard it all many times before.

Her stomach growled, and she went to the fridge like a moth drawn to the flame, intent on getting something junky and unhealthy to snack on. Yanking the door open, she noticed- to her supreme annoyance- and it was nearly empty save for a meat loaf and a half-empty jug of milk.

Great.

Ariana tried to slam the door, but it's rubber cushioned liner kept it from making the satisfying slamming sound that she wanted.

Something in her tortured heart snapped, and she jerked it back open and slammed it again and again, sobbing openly. Nothing went the way she wanted it to. Damnit, she couldn't even get a door to slam right, much less make any friends or actually mean something to her mom.

Tears, hot and angry, poured down her cheeks and she slumped to the floor with her face against the cool metal of the fridge door, wanting to just disappear. But even if she could, she doubted it anyone would even noticed or care.

Ariana sobbed harder.

And those God-awful yellow eyes of hers. She just wanted to get rid of them. They were ugly and made her face shine with an unearthly bright glow.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, shattering her wall of sorrow, making her draw a rattling breath as her tears immediately stemmed. She might be called a geek and a weirdo, but at least they hadn't tagged her as a cry baby yet, and she had no intention of letting them.

Ariana hurriedly dried her eyes on her sleeve and practically sprinted to the door as the person knocked insistently again.

She jerked the door open, and there stood the brown-clad UPS man with a bad case of acne. A large package was propped against the door jab at his side.

"Miss Ariana MacCannon?" He asked, his voice squeaking. She nodded deafly, and he held out a pad for her to sign, which she did somewhat hesitantly, eyeing the large package. She didn't have any relatives- no one who would send her a package. And it also wasn't her birthday.

"Who's it from?" She asked. The guy shrugged.

"No clue. It was ordered online, but the bill went to someone in Fort Max."

Her heart quickened. She definitely didn't know anyone in the fortress city. She had never even been there. Ariana muttered some sort of thank-you, and dragged the heavy package into the hallway, the door falling shut on the man's retreating back.

Curiosity consuming her, she attempted to tear into the brown, cardboard package, but found that the tape resisted her efforts. Sprinting off for a pair of siccors, she returned to it with gusto, ripping open the package and combing through the bubble wrap and peanuts-

-and a shiny silver hoover board was revealed. Her heart beat quickly as she pulled it from the box. It was a hoover board, one of the amazing gifts the Autobots had brought to humanity, a good one too. She ran herhands over its smooth sides that were shaped to give the impression of wings, turning it to rest on her lap. Then, she noticed something odd. Something that made her heart stop.

On the flat part of the board, near the back, was an engraving.

A name.

Her name.

_Ariana_


	3. Chapter 3

1Mom came home around 10:30, the smell of perfume still lingering on her maroon business suit. I sat curled up on the couch, watching Blue-Collar Comedy, laughing my head off at Larry the Cable Guy. The hoverboard I held safely tucked under the blanket with me, its reassuring weight on my lap. For some reason, I had thought it a better idea to show it to her myself than have her find it. Not that it would really matter; she would get mad at me either way.

"Hi honey!" She called happily to me, her voice straining to convey the emotion she never really felt. I could tell though that she was tired and worn, and I answered just as superficially, both of us keeping up the charade.

For a moment she disappeared into the kitchen and I heard the sound of her rustling around in the fridge.

"There's nothin' in there." I called, my eyes still focused on the TV. No matter how hard I tried to absorb the prevalent humor, it was all lost on me beneath the guilty weight of the hoverboard.

I heard my mom sigh and come back into the living room. It was "that sigh", the one that said I have bad news. I waited for her to go first.

"Honey, can you turn off the TV for a minute? I have something I need to tell you."

Without a word, I switched off the glowing box, cutting off Larry at the punch-line of his joke, and turned to look at her.

She came over and sat next to me on the couch, and I thanked my lucky stars that she didn't sit on the hover-board.

"Hm?" I asked.

"Well, I have some good news," She began, composing herself, her eyes stubbornly roaming anywhere but onto my face.

"My boss offered me a promotion..."

"That's great! But you seem rather morbid." She half-laughed.

"Yes, I suppose so. The only problem though, hon, is that I would have to move to Alaska"

I shrugged. That was no big deal to me. I liked snow and ice and cold weather. And besides, it was really beautiful up there anyway. I wondered if I should just come out and tell her about the hover-board from the mysterious sender-

"And so, I thought you could stay with a good friend of mine in Fort Max."

I choked on the words rising in my throat. So she did know someone in Fort Max after all. That might explain the hover-board.

"Who?" I asked, felling depressed again. She just wanted to leave me here- get rid of me. I guess I can't blame her though. After all, being a single mom had been hard on her. But it still hurt.

She hesitated a great deal, which surprised me. Why didn't she just come out and tell me? It wasn't THAT big a deal.

"Well, honey, he's..." She trailed off. I tried to grin but found I could not. It really wasn't funny at all anyway.

"Your boyfriend?"

She winced. "No, not... no, he's not." I sensed that she wanted to say something else, but changed her mind. Why couldn't she just tell me?

"He's a transformer." I gaped. My mouth was so wide it could collect flies.

"YOU are involved with the robots?" I asked.

"Transformers, dear." She corrected.

"Whatever. But you KNOW them? As in personally? As in well enough to ask them to take care of a 15-year-old? And WHY exactly are you trying to dump me with a bunch of robots in the first place?"

"Yes, I know them. I...worked for them, a few years ago, before you were born." She sighed deeply. "And I don't want to have to uproot you to take you with me. You need to stay in school."

Yeah, right. About as much as I needed a hole in my head.

"Aren't there schools in Alaska?" I tried one more time, propping my elbow on the armrest, holding my chin in my hand and staring at the darkened TV screen.

"Well, not anywhere near where I'll be staying. Besides, you'll like it at Fort Max. There are lots of parks where you can sit after school and work on your paintings, and there's lots of places to explore..." She trailed off. I could tell she was trying to get me excited about it, she really was. I had to give her an A for effort but a D for execution. Instead of making me exuberant at the thought of living within the Autobot hot-spot city, all her little speech did was drag my spirits even farther into the mud. Even though I knew that I would eventually grow to like it- I always did- right now I just wanted to dig my heels in and have nothing to do with it. As a mild expression of defiance, I refused to look at her.

"Honey..." She started, reaching a hand to my short, tousled blond hair and petting it affectionately. Ok, now I admit, its hard for me to stay mad at anyone for long. I took the bait and turned to look at her over the tops of my wired rimmed glasses with my creepy, glowing yellow eyes. I small smile lifted her haggard face as she looked at me.

"You're such a pretty young lady, Ariana. If only you would nicer clothes..." I pulled away, rolling my eyes. We had had this talk WAY too many times before.

"Mom..."

"And you have such pretty eyes. I keep offering to get you contacts but you keep insisting on those hideous glasses." She was trying to tease me affectionately, trying to lighten the mood. I tried to play along.

"Hey! These are SOO in right now mom- the vintage look rocks! Besides," My head dropped minimally. I didn't want to add my own sorrows to my mom's, "My eyes are ugly anyway."

"Oh honey..." She started in that way that told me she was about to deny what we both knew to be the truth, if only to keep up this charade of ours.

"Mom, you know it's true! I mean, come on! It's almost biologically impossible for someone to have yellow eyes except by random mutation." I pouted. My mom smiled at me, reaching an arm around me and bringing me into a hug.

"Don't worry about what the kids at school say. After all, what do they know? You'll make new friends at Fort Max. You're a sweet girl, Ari- people will see that in you. You've just got to keep a good outlook and not let the things people say bring you down."

We sat in silence for a moment while I mulled over her words, storing them away for a time when I was sure they would make much more sense. Right now though they didn't seem to apply. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the onslaught when I told her about the hoverboard. I knew she would start the hole 'what-have-you-been-posting-about-yourself-at-those-websites-Ariana!-I-told-you-how-there-are-bad-people-out-there-who-want-to-hurt-little-girls' speech.

"H-hey mom?"

"Hmm?"

"Would this friend of yours at Fort Max have known me previously by any chance?"

My mom slowly withdrew her arm, pulling away from me.

"What are you not telling me, Ariana?" She asked seriously. I knew I was in for it now.

"Because they sent me this." I slowly withdrew the hoverboard from under the covers, keeping my eyes lowered as she took it out of my hands. She would see the engraving in 4...3...2...1-

"When did you get this?" Her voice was damnably neutral. I risked a glance at her face and found no anger there, only wonder.

"Today, a few hours before you came home. The guy who delivered it said the order came from Fort Max," I gestured to it, "I assumed that that would mean your friend."

I waited for a long moment, hardly daring to breathe, and to my utter amazement she handed it back to me with a small smile.

"Well, I guess this means I'm going to have to buy you knee pads before I go."

I gaped at her. That was definitely not what I was expecting.

"Well, there is this cool shop up on Riverwood avenue..."

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I don't think I ever remember being as nervous as a was the day we drove into Fort Max. I clutched the hoverboard in my lap, hanging on to it the way a drowning man would a life preserver, scrunched down in the seat so that no one could see me through the window unless they really tried to look.

The time spent passing through the all-access residential district passed like a dream. But by the time we reached the checkpoint beyond which we would need security clearance to pass, it slowly came to me how monstrously LARGE the city was. We had been driving for a good twenty minutes and I had still yet to see the boarders of the city.

At the checkpoint the car slowed to a stop. A large robot approached our car and spoke with my mother, and she in turn spoke to me, but I couldn't hear her over the crescendo of my own pounding heart.

Mom got out of the car and talked to the two robots, both about seven feet tall. (large, yet not as large as I had originally anticipated Transformers being. The news made it seem like they were a good three stories tall.) One of them spotted me and smiled warmly, but I didn't return the gesture. Instead, I opted to sink lower into my seat. My shyness had over come me once again, but it didn't bother me in the least. Though I had never particularly shared the vehement hate my neighbors held for the alien visitors, I hadn't particularly liked them either. When I was younger, one would sometimes stop by my house, but not for very long. I never saw it, only heard it talking with my mom. She made me stay in the kitchen during those visits. Now, when this one regarded me, I could only shy away. I was liking Fort Max less and less by the second.

When Mom got back in the car, she handed me an ID badge and told me to pin it somewhere on my shirt, and because I disliked something drawing attention to my boobs, I pinned it on my sleeve.

We drove in silence for a few moments. Then I asked: "Were those your Transformer friends back there Mom?"

"Well, I know them, and they are my friends, but they weren't the ones I was referring to. And they're not Transformers, honey- they're Minicons."

I stared at her. "There's different kinds?"

"Yep! You'll get to meet them soon."

"Oh." I paused. "Do I have to?" Mom laughed, though she seemed a bit unsettled by my question, as though she didn't know wether to take it in jest or not.

"Ah, we're here!" She called merrily, the car pulling to a stop in a sheltered overhang. I was about to reach for the door handle to get out when suddenly the car jolted and the platform it was on turned, rising up to another level. I gasped out a strangled cry. _That_ was unexpected.

When we finally came to a stop and mom got out of the car, I felt it safe to do so too and followed suit. We were standing in some sort of large entry way inside one of the towering superstructures that constituted Fort Max, and there was not a window in sight. I found no comfort in that fact.

Mom popped open the trunk and I went around back and fished out my small suitcase, my backpack already slung over one shoulder. As soon as the trunk was closed and we stepped away from the car, the platform swung around again and the car was pulled away into an opening that appeared in the wall and was swallowed up.

"MOM! The car!" I called out to her, dashing forwards as the tail end of the bumper disappeared.

"Don't worry, honey." She said, half laughing, "Max is just parking it somewhere safe for me until I leave.

"Max? Whose Max?" She smiled.

"The city, honey." I gaped at her with as little understanding as if she had just sprouted carrots from her nose or something. My mouth worked for a moment before my mind could fully wrap around what she had said and I blurted out: "Wait, you mean its ALIVE!"

"Yes of course. Didn't your Mother tell you?" A strange voice called out from behind me. I turned around to see a metal foot at eye level. I looked up and up... and screamed.

I think my mother must have somehow stepped in at this point because the next thing I knew she was hugging me around my shoulders saying that there was nothing to be afraid of while I stared dumb founded at the metal giant before me- well two actually. The second seemed to back off shamefully.

Screaming is hideously embarrassing, so I think I was thanking God at this point that it came out in just one loud shriek rather than just going on and on. And though I had been frightened and still was, I wasn't _that _scared. It was mostly shock. I could suddenly see the distinction between them and the minicons when the one near me kneeled down in front of me. Though it hadn't clicked before, the ridiculously high ceilings suddenly made sense.

"I'm sorry Miss. I didn't mean to startle you. I guessed I just assumed that with your mom being who she is you would have gotten used to seeing us by now."

Nope, it didn't register yet. I'm sure it would in a few minutes though, and I pass out colder than a wet mackerel at the thought of talking to a steel giant twenty times my size with a gun with enough torching power to make a bazooka seem friendly.

"Umm...actually, I've NEVER seen a robot before, beyond the little Lego kits I got for Christmas... mostly I've just thought that you all were some media myth sustained by tabloid caffeine..."

Oh yeah, it definitely hadn't registered yet if I could talk this rationally. My mom, thinking that it must have just really been surprise that made me scream slowly released her vise-like grip on my shoulders.

It was just now that I noticed the one in the back who had hung back all this time. He somehow seemed much taller and more imposing than the first, yet for some reason was unable to come forward. That was just fine with me. The less of these robots around the better. I was already uncomfortable and was thinking of things to say to get out of their presence to somewhere where I could be alone.

"Honey, this is Jetfire. He's the head of security at Fort Max."

"Howdy." The white and red robot greeted me.

"Hi." I managed to say clearly, but on the inside the word felt dull and flat.

"I'll be helping to show you around, get settled in, things like that. If you have a problem with something you can always come to me." Though his face with immobile, I could hear the smile in his voice.

I knew I should have said something along the lines of thank you, but the words died in my throat. They didn't feel right, and I didn't like the way they sounded in my head- hollow, dead. I opted for studying my shoes.

"And this," My mother continued as though I had said 'thank you', "Is the friend I was telling you about. His name is Optimus Prime."

I felt myself drawn to look up as he lowered himself down to my height on both knees, and immediately went back to studying my shoes.

"Hello, Ariana." His voice, so deep and gentle, seemed sad somehow. Struck by a sudden thought, I brought my hoverboard out into the open.

"Did...did you send this to me?" I asked, then immediately felt stupid. I of course had heard of Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots- he was all over the news. Yet somehow the hope that someone of great importance had enough time to care about a nobody like me seemed foolish. I felt myself flushing as soon as the words passed through my lips.

"Yes, I did. Think of it as a way of saying sorry for missing fifteen birthdays and Christmases."

Ok, this was definitely one of those 'huh?' moments for me. I cast I sidelong glance at my mom, wondering for the first time just how deeply connected with the transformers she was for their leader to reach invited-over-for-Christmas status. Her face was a mask that was tempted to be cracked by a small smile as she looked up at the Prime, unaware of my gaze. For a moment, she seemed so youthfully girly as she pulled a strand of her shoulder length chocolate brown hair behind her ear.

"Uh..." undignified, I know, but it was all I could say at the moment. For me at least, it was an incredibly awkward situation. Prime seemed to want to say something else, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. It surprised me- the articulate, calmly collected alien leader looked out of sorts.

Luckily Jetfire stepped in to save the day on his behalf. He looked at my mother warmly, smiling as he stood up.

"Long time no see, Alexis."

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I'm back!

Muwahahahaha!

Run for your lives! I've got a bazooka! (Shoots flamers who don't like angsty stories)

(And no, for those of you who have your minds in the gutter, Prime and Alexis hooked up sometime after the Energon series- she was at least 25, ok!)


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